Twitter This Commentary In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files. A truncated synopsis this morning due to a date in Santa Cruz "Superior" Court lending moral support to a friend who is about to go on trial for, and slowly working towards a constitutional law ruling on, California Penal Code 647(e)... being 'un-lodged' within the state of California. My comment at the above Indymedia link:

The wording in the law claims "Any Place". THAT IS what makes it unconstitutional. As it seems, under any reasonable interpretation, to criminalize being in or entering the state if there's no place for the person to (legally) sleep... a necessary (human function). The US Constitution generally forbids any impediment to interstate travel by US citizens. With money or without... with housing or not. That's why they're UNITED states... not countries or 'Fiefdoms'.

Now... The News: It's Offensive... We are now apparently executing(sic) a nationwide offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan and the fighting is intense in a number of provinces. There are Artillery barrages, helicopter gunship attacks and tanks on the move in Helmand. There is also heavy fighting in Kandahar, outside Kabul, and Kunar province. More. Here's a piece of THAT action:

Afghanistan War: Bulldozing through Kandahar Using explosives and bulldozers, the US military has leveled hundreds of homes and trees.
Army engineers blow up a grape hut near a newly established U.S. base near Sia Choy, Kandahar province, Oct. 22, 2010. (Ben Gilbert/GlobalPost) By Ben Gilbert - GlobalPost November 10, 2010 The U.S. military has destroyed hundreds of Afghan civilian homes, farm houses, walls, trees and plowed through fields and buildings using explosives and bulldozers in war-torn Zhari district, a practice that has begun to anger Afghan villagers. The much anticipated third phase of the Kandahar campaign, called Operation Dragon Strike, has U.S. troops from the 2nd brigade, 101st Airborne Division pushing into a dangerous swath of once-Taliban dominated territory from Highway 1 to the Arghandab River. But it has come at much material cost to the Afghans, who complain that the troops are destroying their property, leaving some homeless and blocking their irrigation canals —potentially derailing the all-important counterinsurgency strategy that aims to win the hearts and minds of regular Afghans... _{[Ben Gilbert reporting for the GlobalPost]}

In case you happen to be wondering "What's so goddamn important about Kandahar Afghanistan?"... "Kandahar Airfield has become the busiest single runway airport in the world..." according to Colonel Gary Sheffer, acting commanding general of the U.S. Military’s Joint Sustainment Command in Afghanistan.

But trucks are the main mode of transport. They pick up supplies from the port in Karachi, Pakistan, where U.S. supplies are shipped from either Kuwait or the United States. Lt. Col. Ralph Burks, the distribution integration branch chief for the Sustainment Command, said between 6,000 to 8,000 Afghan and Pakistani trucks move 80 percent of the U.S. military’s supplies around Afghanistan each day. “That many trucks moving back home would be impressive,” he said. “Out here, it’s amazing.” The amount of supplies moving around the country is equally amazing and the costs staggering. The Sustainment Command has supplied 47 million meals to U.S. troops in Afghanistan over the last six months at a cost of $900 million. During the same period, the Command processed 15 million pounds of ammunition, 21 million pounds of mail and distributed 237 million gallons of fuel. At the same time, the Sustainment Command’s troops also procured and delivered over 2 million gallons of bottled water. Capt. Jason Mann said they buy water from 10 plants located around the region. “We’ve got some that comes from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, two located in-country in Kabul, and various plants in the [United Arab Emirates] that we source from,” he said. _{[In full @ The Global Post]}

So... It IS all about empire building... complete with the "busiest single runway airport in the world"... Roads and infrastructure the Afghanis, for the most part do not want, because THEY KNOW it's the road to cultural assimilation/destruction and the end of their traditional nomadic lives, if not for that pesky old "Christian Crusader" issue that rears it's ancient and bloody head in the century of RPGs, AK47s, and IEDs. For more on the US and NATO's attempt at empire-building Afghanistan, click here. President Obama is in Japan for a contentious APEC/G20 conference after a failed (FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!) attempt at a trade deal with South Korea to remove Korean import tariffs and taxes on U.S. cars and beef. After eight months the lack of a legitimate government in Iraq may be over. the Shiites backing current illegitimate president al-Maliki have cut a deal with the rest of the parliament by giving the presidency to a Kurd... Note that the Sunnis, who attempted a walkout, get shafted again. Lisa Murkowski's run against Joe Miller for an Alaskan Senate seat is still up in the air. There are 90,000 write-in votes which may give the race to Murkowski, and Miller is claiming fraud. How many of those 90,000 voters do you suppose actually spend ANY TIME in Alaska? How many do you suppose are Petroleum Engineers (like Sarah Palin's husband) who spend most of their lives in Houston? Speaking of Sarah Palin... There IS a "Palin" in OTHER Alaska news: Despite low scores from the judges, the audience has voted Bristol Palin (don't bother looking it WAS a sidebar item and NO ONE else covered it) into the final four of 'Dancing with the Stars'. The Fight Before Christmas... On his way out of office, Governor Schwarzenegger of California is calling a special session on December 6, the day after the newly elected legislators are sworn in, to hash out California's deficit budget. In OTHER News: 'Cat Food Commission' Releases 'Shock Doctrine' for America - Draft Version

"OK, here’s the draft document for the cat food commission co-chair’s mark. In addition, there’s a page with specific “illustrative cuts”, $100 billion in domestic spending and $100 billion in military spending. Between the two, you can get a sense of what Bowles and Simpson have planned." _{[More @ CommonDreams]}

Congressional Right-Wing Extremists 'Connie Mack' & Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Set to Take Control of House Foreign Affairs Committee and Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere

'In the early years of the past decade, two hard-line Cold Warriors, closely associated with radical Cuban exile groups in Florida, occupied strategic positions in the U.S. foreign policy machine. Otto Reich, former head of covert propaganda operations in Central America, and Roger Noriega, co-author of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, took turns running the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and held other influential administration posts..." Now Cuban-American representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is expected to replace Howard Berman as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Congressman Cornelius McGillicuddy IV AKA "Connie Mack", is slated to take the reins of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, Western Hemisphere...' _{[More @ CommonDreams]}

Roger Noriega wrote recently on Hugo Chavez as a "Cocaine Capo" when Colombia decided to turn a Venezuelan drug kingpin over to his home country instead of the US. (Scroll to "In OTHER News:) This is the 'safety' Riverbend, college age girl-blogger of Baghdad fled to in 2007 and has not been heard from since...

October 22 2007 Bloggers Without Borders... Syria is a beautiful country- at least I think it is. I say “I think” because while I perceive it to be beautiful, I sometimes wonder if I mistake safety, security and normalcy for ‘beauty’... _{[Her last post is here]}

SYRIA: Iraqi Kids Struggle on Dangerous Edges - IPS "Since the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Syria has registered 260,000 Iraqis - with this year's total just over 150,000. In reality, an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis have lived in Syria over the past seven years, the largest community outside Iraq... _{[In Full @ Inter Press Service]}

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